


For the love of a Radio

by VileVenom



Category: Welcome to Night Vale
Genre: Gen, Inspired By Tumblr, a novelty jukebox radio
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-26
Updated: 2014-01-26
Packaged: 2018-01-10 01:40:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 774
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1153255
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/VileVenom/pseuds/VileVenom
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Carlos just couldn't bring himself to part with his radio, even if it was a broken novelty jukebox.</p><p>Inspired by a post sexybaldwin made on tumblr.</p>
            </blockquote>





	For the love of a Radio

**Author's Note:**

> If you want to check out the inspiration for this, it's [here](http://sexybaldwin.tumblr.com/post/74092718138)
> 
> I would suggest not looking at the notes. The arguments on it are ridiculous.
> 
> And, I was originally going to post this in my drabble collection, but I felt it was too important to shove in with those.

When Carlos had first laid eyes on the silly little novelty jukebox radio, he hadn’t thought much of it. He’d simply picked it up and showed it to his then roommate, and they’d both laughed and said it would go perfectly with the rest of their outdated and ‘retro’ furniture. And thus, Carlos had bought it, took it home, plugged it in, and he and his roommate proceeded to make as many ‘Happy Days’ jokes as possible while the little radio sat in their kitchen.

Then Carlos had moved, and the little radio was stashed away in a box, hidden far in the back of a closet, because his new roommate and boyfriend thought novelty gifts were ‘immature’. But, Carlos couldn’t bring himself to be rid of the thing, as it held far too many fond and silly memories of his college years. So, it lived in the box and was slowly forgotten about.

It wasn’t until Carlos was moving all of his things to his new apartment after a rather harrowing breakup that he even remembered he still had the radio. He’d grinned and plugged it in to the wall next to his kitchen sink, memories of giving the little electronic a friendly tap as it turned on and shouting ‘Ayyyyye!’ at his college roommate à la ‘The Fonz’. To his great dismay, though, the poor little radio’s light flickered out after only a moment of being turned on. He unplugged it and tinkered with it for a while, before giving up the ghost. His little jukebox was dead.

He sighed and moved towards the garbage can with the radio, pausing as his hand hovered over the can. He bit his lip as he weighed the radio in his hand. It might have been broken, but it was still a pretty neat looking piece. If nothing else, he could use it as a paper weight. Thus, the broken radio found a new home sitting atop the Inbox of his work desk.

So, of course, when Carlos was transferred to Night Vale, his radio had to come with him. It found a place of pride nestled in between his Miskatonic coffee mug (which had once held all of his pens, before the ban on writing utensils), and his perpetuum mobile, which had frozen with one ball in the air the moment he’d set it on his desk. It would have remained atop the Inbox on his desk, had the stack of files not begun to tower so high he could barely keep them from falling to the floor, let alone leave his radio atop them without worry that it would fall and shatter on the lab’s concrete floor.

And it was that first fateful night, as he sat at his desk, typing away madly at all he’d observed in the strange little desert town, that his little jukebox radio suddenly blared to life, scaring the scientist into scattering the papers he’d been looking at across the floor. He stared at the radio, wide eyed and startled, before snatching it up from his desk and turning it over in his hands. He’d tossed out its cord long ago, given that he knew there was no point in keeping it if the radio was simply to be decoration. There was no place for batteries to be put in, and he’d mangled enough of the wires inside while trying to get it to work again that, by all rights, there shouldn’t have been any sound coming from the decorative speakers.

But, there was.

”A friendly desert community where the sun is hot, the moon is beautiful, and mysterious lights pass overhead while we all pretend to sleep. Welcome to Night Vale.”

Carlos carefully set the radio back on his desk as the rich, sonorous voice began to pour from the radio, welcoming its listeners to its show. He slowly gathered his papers as the voice spoke to him, before settling as his desk, crossing his arms over the hard plastic and resting his head in the crook of his elbow. He smiled at the friendly little red light that declared that his radio was on and broadcasting, not minding at that moment all that much about the oddities of the town.

He let out a short breath and closed his eyes, letting the words of the radio announcer wash over him and sooth him into a sleep he would probably regret come morning, as he’d have a crick in his neck, and his arm would most definitely be tingly from blood loss. But, he really couldn’t bring himself to care all too much as he drifted off.


End file.
